


Professional Cowardice

by mulattafury



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Body Horror, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-23
Updated: 2014-07-23
Packaged: 2018-02-10 02:05:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2006880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mulattafury/pseuds/mulattafury
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jade Harley is scavenging the wreckage of a downed Alternian ship when she comes across an unexpected survivor. Kind of a rough-hashed piece of worldbuilding/exploration for an AU I'm working on, no shippin'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Professional Cowardice

“There you are.”

Jade slung her rifle over her shoulder, ducking carefully through the broken machinery and sparking wires, deeper into the Alternian wreckage and into the helmsblock. “I need a favor.”

This battery core, or “helmsman” as they were classified by the military, was pretty goddamn deceased. Or at least her body was. The twisted biotech in Alternian ships tended to deteriorate and slowly absorb the physical bodies of helmsmen, needing only their psionic energy to keep their systems running. Alternians called this process “Ascent,” the distinguishment of being immortalized in the Fleet’s neural network a higher honor than most lowbloods could ever hope to attain. Jade called the process “fucking horrific,” but the fact that this particular helmsman was so close to it meant that the fatal injuries she’d sustained in the crash hadn’t killed her. In fact, judging by the strength of the distress signal that had guided Jade’s crew to the wreckage, it would probably be days or weeks until brain death, and even that would likely leave fleeting strands of consciousness clinging to the dead ship’s systems, drifting through relay loops in the stars.

Jade would bring her mercy in exchange for her last reserves of energy.

The frayed pink tendrils of biowires had bored into the helmsman’s ports, covering most of her body and rendering the implanted tech worthless. There was nothing to salvage here but power, and Jade set to work tapping Alternian energy cells into whatever solid wiring remained. The tendrils snapped around her wrists, trying to pull her hands away, but their grip was weak and easily broken. She whispered a gentle “shoosh” to the troll’s remains, the dim light in the helmsblock flickering and going dark as the cells began to recharge.

Gunshots outside broke her concentration and she was on her feet in an instant, creeping toward the warped door with her gun at the ready. The sound of returning shots on both sides told her that the hostiles were likely human, or at least using human weapons -- probably other scavvers, if they were picking around an Alternian ship. The gunfire had died down by the time she approached the area of the wreckage where it originated, so there couldn’t have been many, but a nervous call from one of her crew had her on edge.

“Uh, Harley? You might want to check this out…”

Strapped into a chair in the remains of the control room was the the biggest, most pissed-off hunk of troll Jade had ever seen. She could tell he was trying to remain calm and composed, but the faint twitching at the corner of his lips and the low growl rumbling in his chest said he was about to blow a gasket. He was held down with a combination of scrapped safety harnesses and some kind of jury-rigged energy shield that seemed to be drawing from the ship’s power. _That_ could be a problem. Jade could see the restraints already beginning to falter and fail as the ship core was being drained, and if his captors had gone through the trouble she really didn’t want him to have her at a disadvantage.

The average human was hardier than the average troll, but those big highbloods were a wild card, viciously intelligent and immensely strong and occasionally packing psychic abilities that made the more common telekinesis and low-level clairvoyance seem like cheesy sideshow magic. Fortunately highblood combatants weren’t a common problem, especially in Jade’s line of work, and despite his intimidating size even this guy didn’t seem like much of a fighter. His clothing was ripped and singed from the crash, but it was nice, definitely not a military uniform Jade had ever seen. Still, he looked like he’d be hard to take down if he got out of hand. Jade had a handful of trolls in her crew but none that came close to this one in size, and while she doubted he was bulletproof, pumping him full of slugs while he sat strapped to a chair, looking more like a pissed-off executive late for an important meeting than any kind of warrior, just seemed… unsporting.

Blue eyes locked on her as she approached him, and she stopped when a twitch of his lip bared a sharp, gold-capped tooth.

“Hey, big guy. You got a name?” A snarl was his reply, and she stepped back slightly. “Sure, I was looking for an excuse to practice my Alternian.”

The device implanted in her neck wasn’t a translator, but it did a pretty remarkable job converting certain vocal tones into the the harder-to-replicate clicks and trills of Alternian. It was more natural than external playback devices, and had probably paid for itself in favorable negotiations with troll competitors and buyers. The prisoner seemed surprised to be addressed in his native language, then angered that she spoke to him so informally.

“Equius Zahhak,” he answered, his voice carefully steadied, even. “You’re scavengers?”

“We’re… entrepreneurs.”

“You’re cowards.”

“We’re innovators.”

A blue-black tongue flashed over the troll’s teeth and another snarl tugged at his lips. Jade tried not to look nervous as the few working screens in the control room went dark, and the energy fields keeping the troll bound flickered again.

“My name is Harley. Were you a hostage?”

“Yes. The human mercenaries you dispatched were attempting to negotiate trading my life for the rest of their band, who they believed were taken prisoner in another conflict.”

“Does the Fleet take prisoners, now?”

“No.”

Jade snorted, and Equius seemed alarmed by the sound. “I am sorry,” she apologized. “That’s a… derisive inflection. That’s really stupid, though, I can’t believe they thought that would work.”

“They weren’t exactly brilliant.”

He seemed more at ease, now, and Jade moved a little closer, lowering her rifle just a bit.

“Maybe they weren’t, but what about you? This is a military ship but you’re not military. What are you, a contractor? Consultant?”

“I design combat robotics and biomechanics.”

“Really?” Jade grinned. “That’s great! None of my troll guys are tech-minded, and we have a _lot_  of Alternian tech on our ship. Not to get ahead of myself, but if these mercenaries made contact with the fleet, they know you’ve been captured. We’ll treat you nicer than the fishqueen’s enforcers.”

“Is this really much of a choice?” His eyes were fixed on Jade’s rifle, and she shrugged.

“I won’t shoot you, but you’re welcome to stay here if you really want. Just to warn you, though, I’m tapping out your helmsman and taking any useable tech. It’s either stay down with the ship, or come with me and become a professional coward.”

His lips were pressed in a tight line, fists clenched on the armrest of the chair as a heavy bead of sweat trickled from his temple to his tightened jaw. He looked between Jade and her rifle and the other crew members who were gathering to watch a safe distance away from the two of them, finally taking in a deep breath and letting it out in a slow, rattling hiss.

“Very well.”

Equius stood, wrenching his arms from the weakened restraints and tossing the chair aside like a toy, calmly brushing away the broken straps from his shoulders.

“What are your... orders?”

  



End file.
